1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to method and apparatus for the casting of metals. It specifically relates to methods and apparatus systems for automatic casting of metals, particularly non-ferrous metals such as zinc, aluminium, tin, lead and alloys. More specifically the invention relates to methods and apparatus for casting metal ingots, especially jumbo ingots.
2. Description of Related Art
In metal refining it is often necessary to transport raw material from place to place so it may be delivered to a facility where it can be reworked into an eventual end product. One easily transported form is a foundry ingot. Therefore, it is common to form metal into foundry ingots for the purpose of shipping and transportation to end users. Such end users they may use the foundry ingots as feed stock for a further operation.
It is known from the prior art e.g. CA 2,240,332 a system for the automatic casting of metals, especially zinc, which includes a four station indexing carousel for indexing moulds. The stations are casting station, where metal is cast via a launder, a skimming station where an automatic robot controlled skimmer removes dross, a transfer station from which moulds containing molten metal are removed by an overhead crane to be placed in a cooling tank and cooled moulds containing the solidified ingot are returned by the crane to the transfer station of the carousel, and a delivery station where the cast ingots are removed from the moulds by another overhead crane. The empty moulds are recycled to the casting station. This system layout and its product flow are rather complicated. The cooled mould with the solidified ingot is returned from the cooling tank to the casting carousel. Thus the mould is placed in the transfer station two times in a working cycle before the solidified ingot is removed. The ingot is removed at the delivery station of the indexing carousel. The delivery station and the casting station are very near each other. This can be hazardous to the operation personnel. Furthermore the product flow of cast jumbo ingots is complex. Moreover, the fast movements of the overhead crane, when moving the mould with molten metal, can lead to the decreased quality of the ingot surface.